'Extremely difficult': What would be Israel's objectives in an offensive into Gaza?
Former senior U.S. military officials weigh in the challenges of urban warfare. Israel's warning on Friday to residents of northern Gaza to evacuate toward the southern Gaza Strip fueled speculation Israel was about to launch a major ground incursion into Gaza. Since Hamas launched deadly rocket barrages and a large-scale ground attack on an Israeli military base and border towns that have killed more than 1,300 Israelis, Israel has responded by dropping nearly 6,000 bombs against what it says are Hamas targets inside Gaza, airstrikes that Palestinian health authorities estimate have killed more than 1,800 civilians and wounded 7,000 more. Over the past week, Israel has amassed armor and tens of thousands of troops around the Gaza Strip and called up 360,000 reservists, appearing to prepare for an offensive targeting Hamas. What would a large-scale ground operation look like in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on earth where two million Palestinians live in an area jus